The invention relates generally to the field of wound treatment, and more particularly to a wound chamber for treating wounds on a limb of the body.
Various techniques are employed to treat open wounds. In some cases, open wounds may be treated with moist or dry gauze. However, such treatment may result in excessive pain, dehydration of the wound, loss of fluids and proteins, loss of heat or delayed healing. To delay the appearance of infection, burn wounds may be additionally treated with antibacterial creams and the like.
Open wounds appear to heal faster in an environment that is somewhere between moist and dry. Partial thickness wounds heal faster when covered with a polyethylene film than when exposed to air. Conventionally, dressings with some water permeability provide the optimal conditions for healing.
Wound chambers for protecting open wounds and providing environmental control of the treatment site have been developed. For example, an exemplary wound chambers and methods for use are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,757, entitled “System for Diagnosis and Treatment of Wounds,” by Elof Eriksson, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/130,490, entitled “Wound Chamber With Remote Access Portal,” by Eriksson et al., each of which is incorporated herein by reference as if set forth in its entirety.
A wound chamber typically includes a chamber for enclosing a predetermined surface area about a wound on a patient. The wound chamber is sealed to the skin immediately adjacent to the wound. However, certain wounds on and around a limb may not be treatable by a wound chamber that is intended for use on relatively flat skin surfaces. Instead, it may be necessary to enclose all or a portion of a limb in a chamber in order to create a chamber environment around the wound. In addition to other features, the wound chamber may have a portal for introducing treatment fluid and treatment additives into the wound chamber and extracting wound fluid and/or air from the wound chamber. Such operations are typically performed using a syringe or similar delivery/extraction device. For example, the portal may be an injection portal made of a self-sealing material through which a hollow steel needle can be passed. The use of a steel needle in close proximity to the patient creates a risk of injury to the patient and also to the health care provider. An additional risk of the needle damaging the wound chamber is also present. In some clinical applications, the wound chamber itself may be covered by a secondary dressing or covering, such as gauze or an elastic bandage. In such circumstances, a portal located directly on the chamber would be covered by the secondary dressing and would be inaccessible.
The present invention is directed to providing a chamber to treat wounds on limbs, and to overcoming, or at least reducing the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.